Sadly,, TG, it took me this long after posting.. mind like a steel trap some nights.

Hey Gus, when your uploading problems are solved, could I beg the favour of an illustration for this one?  Puh-leeeze?

Dunno what yer on about, Richard. :()

I was dubbed 'curdlewhip' by a friend's dad - that was a while ago, but you are welcome to rhyme that.

Cricket is a wonderful game (!) - I can feel the pall of calm that's going to descend over the nation for the next 3 months. You know it's over, when ABC radio runs hair transplant stories. Rule #43 - all political controversy must be put on ice by the end of November.

Difficult, curdlewhip, one little word'll slip readers to a world between bondage and whey.  Society's herd'll flip! Sorry about this blip... you caught me before my fist cup'o the day.

I too, am getting the impression that the level of ABC 'feelgoods' is nothing to do with the end of the political year.  It's a shame to see some good people being painted into corners of dangerously redefined political correctness.

 

I actually wrote to Rove last night to thank him for being the only activist on commercial television.  His openingi routine is often the only alternative view on politics, and he's preaching to 1.5 mil... don't knock it.  He even took the p##s out of Doug Wood two days after the Channel 10 special..

Nobody else is discussing civil liberties and terrorism with the mainstream population at this level of mass media.  I find it admirable.

 

Frank Rich (New York Times, pay-for-view but soon available elsewhere): Dishonest, Reprehensible, Corrupt ...
GEORGE W. BUSH is so desperate for allies that his hapless Asian tour took him to Ulan Bator, a first for an American president, so he could mingle with the yaks and give personal thanks for Mongolia's contribution of some 160 soldiers to "the coalition of the willing." Dick Cheney, whose honest-and-ethical poll number hit 29 percent in Newsweek's latest survey, is so radioactive that he vanished into his bunker for weeks at a time during the storms Katrina and Scootergate. ...

From Alexander Cockburn: How the Democrats Undercut John Murtha:
... Barely had he stopped speaking before the halls of Congress echoed with the squeaks Democrats whimpering with panic as they skipped clear of Murtha's shadow. ...

From 'Loony' jibe at US policy over climate:
Britain's most senior scientist warned last week that UK research is being stifled by an 'appalling, obsessive' bureaucracy. 'A bunch of academic apparatchiks' is threatening our scientific brilliance, said Lord May, retiring president of the Royal Society. 'Today, Crick and Watson's work on DNA would have been blocked before they had got started. Crick would have been sacked for being idle and Watson would have been told to piss off and stop messing about with his grant.' May - in short - is in typical form. The Australian-born mathematician - scourge of greenies, homeopaths, lawyers, bureaucrats and politicians - leaves office on Wednesday, but he is not going quietly. He described the beliefs of US climate chief James Connaughton as 'loony' and warned that Christian and Islamic fundamentalists now threaten to create a blighted, blinkered world worthy of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. ...

Robert May will be making a pest of himself in the House of Lords, bless him. This system, of promoting useful citizens into government, is one that leaves ours for dead. No wonder Mike Rann wants to get rid of SA's upper house.

From the ABC

Current Iraqi rights abuses equal Saddam's: former PM
Abuse of human rights in Iraq is as bad now as it was under Saddam Hussein, if not worse, former prime minister Iyad Allawi said in an interview published on Sunday.
"People are doing the same as (in) Saddam Hussein's time and worse. It is an appropriate comparison," Mr Allawi told British newspaper The Observer.

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One of Gus Iraqi neighbour: "You cannot impose democracy in Iraq... The country, the region has survived for 4,000 years without it, mostly with conflicts and peace management from tough leaders. People want peace but not democracy. Democracy does not mean anything when there are very strong ethnic, sectarian and religious lines..."

Democracy might work in Iraq but it took more than two hundred years for the US to ,get a whiff of democracy and the antics of George W Bush shows the US has lost the plot about it... Moneycracy? Powercracy? Sure...

From the ABC

Iraqi President hits back at Allawi abuse claims
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has hit back at former prime minister Iyad Allawi for saying human rights abuses in Iraq were as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein.
"I cannot imagine that such nonsense has been said by Dr Allawi because he is very well aware that now in Iraq we are enjoying all kinds of democratic rights," Mr Talabani told BBC World television after Mr Allawi's comments appeared in British newspaper The Observer.

Gus comment: Allawi of course used to work for the CIA, like his cousin Chalabi... Allawi is annoyed at the shift towards religious rule like in Iran by the Shiite majority (Allawi and Chalabi are secular shiites) All very messy...

John Howard made a very revealing comment, this morning on ABC radio [link not available yet]. In regard to the Pittwater result, he said "Liberal voters do not like by-elections". This says a lot about him, his constituency, and his attitude to the execution of Van Nguyen.

John Howard attracts people who value Order, against (ahem!) Anarchy. So, in his (limited) imagination, Howard wouldn't see himself out in the streets behind banners, protesting about an injustice like judicial homicide. In another life, though, as leader of opposition against Labor's moves to increase taxes, he would be out there, full of rage and compassion. I do not suggest the man is devoid of compassion, because we know some things do take his attention. I didn't feel particularly upset about Martin Bryant's victims, either. But there is where Howard has credibility. He did stand up and face down the rednecks and gun-nuts, to outlaw semi-automatic rifles, etc. Okay, he did weigh up the political consequences of doing nothing, just as, in this instance, he has been doing some pretty swift mental exercises. One of the first aspects he considered would have been, still is, his buddy the Beast of Crawford. How would it look if the Howard government kept making strident protests against Singapore, while one of the hanging States is set to stretch one before Xmas? Howard, so they tell us, is a stickler for loyalty. He would not abandon his mate in the time of Bush's great need.

He would have thought through his responses if the subject had been someone near and dear to him. Let's suppose it was, say, the son of a close family friend, call him Nephew, in Changi jail. Here is where we can apply a bit of diplomacy. If the call had come early enough, and the stricken drug smuggler had quickly made it known who he was related to, things could have been done. Howard could have done what the cousins do - detail the local embassy official to knock up the local magistrate or politician, and put persuasive case that the errant American citizen would be best handed over for trial in his home state. The ambassador would, of course, have in his hand the appropriate legal paperwork, and be accompanied by a pair of federal marshalls. And, visible in the background, would be a platoon of fully armed marines from the closest military base. Before any but the briefest of legal proceedings, Nephew would be on a plane back to the US. If, however, it had got beyond the possibility of early intervention and retrieval, Uncle John would have to put out a different set of feelers. He would have to let it be known to the "host" government that he needed to know what he could do to help. Someone would point to an existent problem in trade or business matters where the foreigners are hoping to be able to do better in Australia. Howard would have to make a hard decision, on whether or not to meddle in laws or regulations or proceedings, to do a favour for a friend. He couldn't interfere without the risk of exposure, sooner or later. A tough call, at this stage, with Peter's devotees calling out for a Sign.

Howard and his kow-towing bunch, are choosing to look in the wrong place. If they want superior guidance, they could look at the example of Israel, on capital punishment.
... the death penalty was effectively legislated out of existence. Today, the State of Israel only uses the death penalty for extraordinary crimes. The last – and only – execution in Israel took place in 1962 against convicted Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. In Orthodox Judaism, it is held that in theory the death penalty is a correct and just punishment for some crimes. However in practice the application of such a punishment can only be carried out by humans whose system of justice is nearly perfect, a situation which has not existed for some time.

Instead, Howard seems to be insisting the established order is inviolate, and that is as morally corrupt and reprehensible as you can get.